by Hunt, James
“Yeah, could be more though. I only got a look at a handful of them, but there were a lot of bikes parked out front at the motel,” Ulysses answered.
The five of them took time to scan the streets on the edge of the town, hiding in the tall grass. If Mike could swing it, he’d like to get his daughter back without having to fire a shot, but the doubt of that happening was growing in the back of his mind.
If the bikers saw or heard him before they were able to get Kalen out, they’d hurt her. Mike couldn’t take that chance.
“Okay, here’s the plan. Fay, Clarence, and Ulysses, you go and set yourselves up on the second story of one of the buildings across from the motel. You have enough ammo to provide a lot of cover fire. I only want you to shoot if you hear someone else shooting first, understand?” Mike asked.
“Of course,” Clarence said.
“Got it,” Fay replied.
“I should be coming with you,” Ulysses said.
“Dad, you’re still limping from the other day. Whoever goes into get the girls will have to be mobile, and right now you’re not.”
“I’m on the ground with you?” Tom asked.
“You stay on my tail the whole way in. You have the silencer I gave you?” Mike asked.
“I got it,” Tom said.
“If the girls are dead,” Mike said, pausing after the last word left his mouth. “Then I’m going to draw the bikers out. And I want to bury all of them. If you have a problem with that, then tell me now.”
The others didn’t say anything.
“Let’s go,” Mike said.
The group took off. Ulysses, Clarence, and Fay headed toward the other side of the street, keeping low until they found a good spot across from the motel.
While Mike tried to be as quiet as possible, Tom marched behind him like an elephant stampeding through a field.
“Try and keep it quiet,” Mike said.
“I am.”
Mike counted the bikes out front. Ulysses was right; there were at least twenty of them. If they doubled up when they rode here then there could be even more.
“We’ll check the first floor and work our way around. I’ll check the windows. You just make sure no one sees us,” Mike said.
“And if someone does?”
“Kill them fast.”
The first few rooms were empty. When they got to the end of the hall and started making their way to the other side, one of the doors opened. Mike and Tom jumped behind a staircase to hide.
The biker never looked their way as he headed through the courtyard. Mike stayed put, making sure he didn’t come back, then made his way to the room he just left.
Mike kept the barrel of the rifle buried in the crack of the door and slowly turned the handle. The inside was dark. After his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see the room was empty.
They left and continued checking the other rooms as they passed them. A few of them had bikers inside, making Mike and Tom crawl for a few feet below the window, but Kalen and Mary weren’t anywhere on the first floor.
The second floor wasn’t any better. All of those rooms were empty. Wherever the girls were, the bikers weren’t keeping them at the motel.
Mike sat on the edge of the bed in the last empty room they checked. The dim light of hope that his daughter was still alive was fading.
Then he heard two voices coming up the stairs outside. Mike raised his rifle, poised to shoot, aiming at the door.
Tom’s head was on a swivel as he kept glancing between the window and Mike. He slowly moved to the back of the room.
Mike positioned himself in the right front corner next to the window so he could get a clear shot.
“I wish Jake hadn’t beaten them up so bad.”
“Yeah, they would’ve been a good lay if their faces weren’t all fucked up.”
“Did he say what he wanted to do with them?”
“They’re supposed to stay alive for now. Jake thinks they got help from people staying in a cabin nearby. We’re going to check in the morning.”
Mike watched the patches on the backs of the bikers’ cuts fade out of view along with the sound of their voices.
The girls were hurt, but they were still alive. The bikers were coming from somewhere, now he just had to find out where they were coming from.
Mike cracked the door and saw one of the bikers turn into a room a few doors down while the other kept walking. He waited until the other biker disappeared into his own room.
“Mike,” Tom said.
“We’ll go down and ambush him. But we have to keep him quiet. I’ll hold him down while you gag him.”
“Mike, listen.”
“What?”
“If we know they’re alive and it looks like most of the bikers will be heading out for a search party in the morning, why don’t we just wait until then to look for them. There’ll be less chance of us getting caught.”
“Because they might not be alive in the morning.”
Tom didn’t have kids. He wasn’t a father. If he could do something to get his daughter out, then he was going to explore every opportunity that presented itself, and right now one of them was less than a hundred feet away from them.
Mike counted the rooms off quietly in this head. One. Two. Three. He could feel his pulse quicken. He checked the window. The room was empty, but the bathroom door was open.
Mike opened the door quietly, keeping the handle turned when he shut it to avoid the door clicking when he closed it.
He set the rifle on the bed and motioned for Tom to do the same. The sound of the urine hitting the toilet was followed by the groan of relief. Mike put his back to the wall just outside the door, and when the biker came out Mike covered his mouth and held him in a headlock.
“Grab the zip ties out of my bag,” Mike said.
Tom pulled two zip ties and grabbed the biker’s legs, taking a boot to the face in the process but eventually tying him up.
Mike replaced his hand with the biker’s bandana, shoved it in his mouth, then zip-tied his hands behind his back.
The biker squirmed on the bed, struggling to free himself. Sweat dripped from the tip of Mike’s nose as he pulled a blade from his belt. He could see the whites of the biker’s eyes stare at the sharp edge of steal in his hand.
Mike brought the knife to the biker’s throat. The edge dug into his skin, drawing blood that trickled beneath his shirt and onto the bed.
“The girls you were talking to your friend about earlier. Where are they?” Mike asked.
What came out of the biker’s mouth was “duck you,” but Mike figured that wasn’t what he meant.
He slammed the knife into the biker’s calf. The blood oozed from the gash as Mike kept pressure on the blade, digging it deeper into the flesh. The biker thrashed on the bed, screaming into the bandana.
“Where is she?” Mike asked.
The gurgling sound of blood and the cutting of meat followed every twist of the knife Mike gave. He could feel the blade scrape along the bone. The biker’s body jerked and convulsed.
“Harrifs ahffice. Harrifs ahffice,” the biker said.
Mike slammed the butt of his rifle into the biker’s forehead, knocking him unconscious.
“Let’s go,” Mike said.
Mike hurried down the steps and crouched behind a car on the street. He looked up at the second floor of the Laundromat, waving his arms trying to get Fay’s, Clarence’s, and Ulysses’s attention.
He saw Fay wave back, and he pointed down the street toward the sheriff’s office. She gave a thumbs-up in response.
“They’ll have guards inside. We’re not detaining this time. You shoot to kill, got it?” Mike said.
“Got it,” Tom said.
Mike was alert. Adrenaline pumped through his veins. His daughter was alive, and he was less than sixty feet away from getting her out.
Then, when Frankie came out of his room and saw Mike and Tom running across the courtyard, everything started
to move in slow motion.
“Hey!” Frankie shouted.
Frankie started screaming for everyone to get out of bed. Mike pulled the pistol from his side and fired in Frankie’s direction. When he did, he could hear his sniper team open fire from their position.
Mike kicked down the sheriff’s door, poised to shoot with his finger on the trigger.
Through his sights, he could see Jake with a knife to Kalen’s throat, using her as a human shield. His daughter’s face was bruised and cut. Her right eye was completely swollen shut.
“I knew someone would come for them,” Jake said.
Mike kept his finger on the trigger. He might be able to get a shot off, but it would be risky. Jake had Kalen close. There wasn’t a lot of room for error.
“Let her go,” Mike said.
“I don’t think so. You put your gun down, or I slit her throat right here.”
Mike took a step forward, and Jake dug the blade deeper into Kalen’s skin, making her tense up.
“I’m not bluffing. I killed everyone in this town. One more dead bitch is no skin off my back,” Jake said. “Put the gun down.”
It would only be a matter of time before more bikers came rushing in and put a bullet in Mike’s back, which did Kalen zero good. If he was captured, at least he could be here with her. That was something… for now.
Mike took his finger off the trigger. He lowered the rifle and disarmed himself of all guns, knives, and ammunition.
“Your friend too,” Jake said.
Tom lowered his rifle and put his hands in the air.
“Let’s take a walk,” Jake said.
***
Ulysses took the first shot, aiming for Frankie, who was running after Mike. He missed only by a few inches, but it was enough to give Frankie time to duck for cover. The next biker who came into Ulysses’s cross hairs wasn’t as lucky.
Fay opened fire on a group running into the courtyard, ducking behind a cluster of stone statues, which she redecorated with some .223 ammo.
Clarence concentrated on the top floor, for any bikers rushing out. He managed to pick one off, before the other realized where the shooting was coming from.
They were in a good position. Any biker who came out of his room was met with a hail of gunfire.
Ulysses was the first to stop firing when he saw Mike with his hands in the air. Kalen was being dragged behind him with a knife to her throat.
“Fay,” Ulysses said.
She stopped shooting. Clarence did as well. Fay glanced through the sights. Jake’s shoulder was in her cross hairs.
“I think I have a shot,” Fay said.
“No, it’s too close,” Clarence said.
Fay took the rifle off the windowpane and ducked behind the wall.
“Hello, friends,” Jake said.
His voice echoed in the street, hanging in the night air.
“What do you want?” Ulysses asked.
“I want you to come down here, guns and hands in the air, and join us,” Jake said.
“We’ve got a good bead on you from up here, so why don’t we do this? You let our people go, we leave, and no one else dies,” Ulysses said.
“No,” Jake said.
Jake pulled a pistol from the back of his shirt and aimed at Tom’s head. A shot rang out and bits of blood, bone, and brain matter exploded out the side of Tom’s temple. Tom’s body hit the floor, and Jake pointed the pistol at Kalen’s head.
“You come down now, or I continue my new paint job of Main Street with your people’s blood,” Jake said.
Ulysses motioned for Fay to creep back from the windows where they couldn’t be seen. Clarence did the same. His voice was a whisper when he spoke.
“I’m going down. You two head back to the cabin and warn the others. Take them to that farm if you have to, but don’t let any of them come into town.”
“Ulysses, if you go down there, they’ll kill you, Mike, and Kalen,” Fay said.
“I can’t let you go down there alone, Ulysses,” Clarence said.
“They’ll kill them anyway if I don’t go down there. If they think one of us got away that means they still might keep us for leverage. They don’t know how many people we have.”
“Ulysses, I don’t like this,” Fay said.
“Just go. Hurry!”
Fay disappeared behind the stores and kept low in the tall grass until Ulysses couldn’t see her anymore.
“I’m with you. Us old guys have to stick together,” Clarence said.
When the two came out front, they both kept their hands in the air. Two bikers patted them down then threw their arms behind their backs.
Frankie had Kalen, and another biker had Mike. Jake walked up to Ulysses and Clarence smiling.
“Where’s your other friend?” Jake asked.
“It was just the two of us up there,” Clarence said.
Jake brought his pistol up to Clarence’s forehead.
“Never play poker, old timer. You’d lose every hand,” Jake said.
Jake squeezed the trigger and Clarence’s body collapsed to the ground.
“Who wants to play next?” Jake asked.
Night of Day 13 (the Cabin)
Once Fay had put some distance between herself and the town, she jumped out of the tall grass and started the jog back up to the cabin. She had all three rifles slung over her shoulder, which slammed into her back with every step.
When she heard the other gunshot go off in the distance while she was running through the fields she stopped to look back. She wanted to turn back, help them, but she knew Ulysses was right. She couldn’t do it by herself.
She never let up, even with her muscles cramping and burning; she told herself she wouldn’t stop until she reached the cabin. When she finally arrived, she opened the door and collapsed.
Ray jolted up from the couch at the sound of her entrance, and when he saw Fay on the ground, he yelled for help. Sam was lying on the floor and was the first person by Fay’s side.
Anne came in through the back kitchen door. She rushed toward Fay on the ground and helped sit her up against the wall as she took gasps of air, trying to catch her breath.
“What happened? Where’s Mike?” Anne asked.
“They… have him… and Ulysses.”
“Just breathe,” Sam said.
“Did you see Kalen? Is she all right?” Anne asked.
“She’s… fine… Tom’s dead… and someone else… I couldn’t see who though.”
“Jesus.”
“Slow, deep breaths. In through your nose and out through your mouth,” Sam said, coaching her to try to get her heart rate down.
“We need to get out of here now,” Fay answered.
“What?” Ray asked, still propping himself up by his arms, trying to listen to the conversation.
“Ulysses said we should head to the farm,” Fay said.
“The farm with the hunter we’re trading with?” Anne asked.
“Yeah, he said that would be a good place to fall back to.”
Jung came running into the living room, hearing the commotion that was going on.
“What’s happening? Fay, are you okay?” Jung asked.
“I’m fine, but we need to get going,” Fay replied.
“We’re going to Cincinnati?” Jung asked, his eyes wide with relief.
“No, we need to get to the farm,” Fay answered.
Jung shook his head. He stepped in between Anne and Fay, pleading with them.
“If something’s happened, then our best chance is to drive to Cincinnati. We can’t stay here anymore. It’s not safe.”
“That’s why we’re going to the farm, Jung,” Fay said.
“No!”
Jung’s voice thundered through the cabin. His body went rigid, his hands clenched into fists at his side.
Sam’s hand instinctively went to his side arm. Anne saw the motion, and she shook her head. Sam let go of the pistol’s handle.
“We need
to get to Cincinnati. It’s our only chance to be safe. We can’t stay here. I need to get Jenna to a hospital.”
“Jung, we ca—”
